Automatic mail-dumping device.



F. POMEROY.

AUTOMATIC MAIL DUMPING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MM. 6. 1917.

Patented June 18, 1918.

l/VVE/MTUW I UNA I UMEWUY BY W:

bottom 18 of the mail car.

FLORA POIVIEROY, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA;

AUTOMATIC MAIL-DUIVIPING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 1%, 191%.

Application filed March 6, 1917. Serial No. 152,910.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FLORA PoMnnoY, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented a new and useful Automatic Mail-Dumping Device, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism for automatically delivering mail from a moving train in a safe and regular manner into receptacles located in proper positions at stations.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a partial vertical section of a mail car, a track, and a receptacle adjacent to said track; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 8--3 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing, 1 indicates a mail car, adjacent to a side 2 of which is secured a container 3 for containing mail bags 4, or other packages, resting upon a bottom 6, hinged, as shown at 7 to the side of the car, said bottom being also centrally supported by a horizontal portion 8 of a latch 9, pivotally mounted, as shown at 11, upon the inner wall 12 of the container 3. Through a hole in the outer end of the horizontal portion of the latch extends an arm 13 of a lever 14, pivoted upon a short shaft 16, the ends of which are secured in vertically extending brackets 17 adjacent to each other and supported by the inner wall 12 of the container below said bottom 6 and by the Another arm 19 of said lever depends below the main car,

and its lower end is adapted, at suitable locations along the track 21, to cont-act with a cam or shifter 22 secured, as shown at 23, to the ties of the track. .When, in the motion of the train, the lower end of said lever contacts with said shifter, said lower end is given a lateral outward movement, thereby imparting to the upper arm 13 a lateral inward movement, thereby withdrawing the latch 9 from underneath the free edge of the trap door or bottom 6, which thereupon drops, swinging on its hinges, and allows the mail bags -1- to drop from the container down a chute 24:, which extends below the bottom of the car and has an outwardly inclined bottom 26, which directs the falling mail bags into an elongated receptacle 27, extending parallel with the track below the surface of the ground, from which receptacle the mail bags or other packages can be removed at leisure.

A crank handle 28 enables the trap door to be raised upon its hinges to a position to be again supported by the latch 9, which returns to its original position, the lever l l swinging to its original position by gravity when its lower arm has passed the camshaped shifter.

1 claim:

In an apparatus of the character described, the combination, with a mail car, of a container therein for mail bags, a hinged bottom therefor, a latch supporting the free end of said bottom, a lever pivotally supported by the car and having an arm operatively engaging-said latch to withdraw the same, and a depending arm, a shifter on the track adapted to engage said depending arm to move it laterally with the motion of the train, to Withdraw the latch and permit the contents of the container to drop, a chute below the car for guiding the dropping con tents laterally, and a receptacle below the ground into which said contents are so guided.

FLORA POMEROY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. d. 

